Has anybody has any success painting plastic. I’m looking to paint some bezels, similar to this:

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/attachment.php?attachmentid=81161&stc=1&d=1341521865

Plan is to jazz up the dashboard a little. What I don’t want is the paint to chip in a matter of minutes……. Any good quality, tough, plastic spray paints out there?

Spray paint it perfect

Never used it myself but I remember this being popular with custom car people back in the day (90’s VW scene).

Tamiya do some good ones, available from any good model shop, or online from http://www.modelhobbies.co.uk
To prevent it chipping you could give it a coat or three of clear gloss varnish, but please do allow each coat to set for 24 hours

I’ve never tried Plasticote on plastic, but I assume they’d work.

Some car paint sprays used to be cellulose rather than enamel or acrylic, these can melt the plastic, depending what type of plastic it is, so it’s always good to do a test on some scrap plastic of the same type first

The primer stays on better if you can get them sand blasted ,that’s worked for me in the past.

cheers!!

I’ve had good success with car spray paint on plastic. It needed to be a bit flexible in use and it lasted well. Just sanded it and used the grey primer and then colour. Just the stuff from halfords.

Borrow your dad’s old record player and set it to 45 rpm. Mask off the platter, set the bezel on it on three small legs and spray it as it turns. Allow to dry, apply another coat if needed then lacquer.

If it is for a boat then get something with really good UV resistance.

or use good gauge covers

UV, no problem, we’re in Scotland, the permanent cloud cover helps with the UV protection.